The Week Ahead: Decision on Posco, Deadline for BlackBerry

Monday, Jan. 31: Environment Minister, Jairam Ramesh, will make a final decision on whether or not to rescind South Korean steelmaker Posco’s green clearances for its proposed steel plant in Orissa.

Today also marks the deadline for Canada’s Research in Motion to provide the Indian government access to encrypted BlackBerry communications. While RIM has provided the Indian government with access to its messenger service, the company has so far said that it can’t provide security agencies access to its corporate smartphone e-mail service.

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Bihar will host a a three-day Bal Olympiad (Youth Olympics). The event is expected to see 3,000 students take part and will mostly see students from government schools from across the state participate.

Restaurant Week India begins in Delhi and runs through Feb. 6. The event gives foodies a chance to dine at the city’s most aspirational restaurants at more affordable prices and provides a platform for participating restaurants to showcase their skills. The Mumbai leg will run the following week.

Tuesday, Feb. 1: India will unveil its own cap-and-trade mechanism in order to reduce air pollution. The program will kick off with a pilot in Tamil Nadu and Gujarat and will involve setting a price on emissions, the Economic Times said.

Telemarketers will be issued a distinct numbering series starting with 70, for mobile and landlines, to help mobile users spot spam calls. The unique numbers will help mobile users lodge complaints about unsolicited commercial calls as well. Hopefully we’ll see a drop in pesky calls from telemarketers.

The Delhi Police will begin uploading all new crime reports on their official website – www.delhipolice.nic.in. From Tuesday on, anyone can download a crime report from the website or get a copy from a police stations for 25 rupees ($0.50).

Wednesday, Feb. 2: India will sign an inspection agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which will enable it to source nuclear fuel from foreign suppliers once its reactors are put under the IAEA safeguards.

Thursday, Feb. 3: India will showcase a $10 laptop in Tirupati in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh. The prototype, which has 2 gigabytes of RAM, will be on display as part of the launch of the National Mission on Education through Information and Communication Techology.

A Group of Ministers on aviation headed by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, will look at an equity infusion for the ailing state carrier Air India.

The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) along with other opposition parties will conduct a week-long demonstration against inflation.

Friday, Feb. 4: Nobel laureate Amartya Sen will release a report on the state of elementary education in Patna prepared by Asian Development Research Institute (ADRI) and the Pratichi Trust.

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India Real Time offers analysis and insights into the broad range of developments in business, markets, the economy, politics, culture, sports, and entertainment that take place every single day in the world’s largest democracy. Regular posts from Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones Newswires reporters around the country provide a unique take on the main stories in the news, shed light on what else mattered and why, and give global readers a snapshot of what Indians have been talking about all week. You can contact the editors at indiarealtime(at)wsj(dot)com.